Hand Dug wells are fairly common in the USA. Many of the hydrologic studies involves performing yield tests on wells – bored wells and hand dug wells. Hand dug wells could be within the house or outside. Often they come with a well house with some type of cover at the top. Pretty much all of the hand dug wells I have ever seen showed very slow recharge. If you are planning to test such a well, take couple of reading materials with you.
In old days, there used to several small punch mines which were rarely documented properly and lack proper mine maps. Sometimes, you may find a location of the known portal from USGS map. For a water quality impact investigation, we were looking for the old underground mine portals. The photo shows one of them. The entrance is currently covered up with fall in material from the roof. However, you can definitely tell that the area was previously disturbed. You can also figure out the coal seam they were after in old days.
I have been working on a water balance study for an underground mine. As a part of our investigation, it was critical to understand the changes in the level of underground mine pool. You can see the water in the mine pretty clear in the picture. The lime-mud was very sticky and we had hard time close to the shoreline.
This is another picture I took during a field trip to an old limestone mine in Virginia. Just enjoy the beauty.
Coal News